Tag Archives: God

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Love and Grief

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“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)

This was not the topic that I originally intended for this week’s post, but given a few divinely inspired events, my plan was changed.  As is my habit, I started the day with the “verse of the day” emails from Bible Gateway and KLove. The one from Bible Gateway was a portion of Psalm 139.  It is a favorite of mine for many reasons; one of those is that it was the last passage my parents read together on the eve of my mother’s death.  That circumstance coupled with the quote that I posted this week beckoned me to consider love and grief.

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Forty Year Stretch

Marriage, Commitment, Love and God

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“Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.  Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.  What will man do to me?’  Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”    Hebrews 13:4-7 

This past weekend Marie and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary.  While I would like to say that it was an entirely blissful 40 years, that would not be a true statement for two reasons.  We are both fallible humans still in the process of sanctification and there have been trials that have tested our faith in each other and our God.  However, what I am able to declare as true is that those 40 years have been blessed and I would, therefore, like to share a bit of our walk with you.

If you read from the beginning of Hebrews 13, you will see that Paul is asserting a list of essential behaviors for the body of Christ; they are in essence keys to living well.  Honoring marriage is just one of them.  However, if you look beyond the issues themselves, you see a few common denominators that allow for success in these areas. 

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Hope Defined

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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  (Hebrews 10:23)

Hope is an integral part of our faith, but what is it really?    The world tells us that hope is a feeling or a desire.   That connotation hardly works in this passage.  How can one hold fast to a feeling or a desire?  Just because we have a feeling something will happen or we desire it does not make it a certainty.  The word that Paul uses in this passage is really defined as “favorable and confident expectation”.

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Enduring Love

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We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  1 John 4:16-17

We all like to be reminded that we are loved…especially by those who are dear to us.  My wife was out of town this weekend and I wasn’t feeling the greatest on several levels.  At one point, I considered staying home from church on Sunday morning.  However, realizing that it was not a wise choice in that moment and that there are others who would love to attend a worship service, but are unable, I rose to the occasion and went.  During the praise time, the worship team led us in “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”.  For various reasons, I desperately needed to hear those words.

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Christ Our Redeemer

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Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.  Hebrews 4:14-15 

The small group that my wife and I participate in is currently studying the statements of faith that our church affirms.  As I began preparing for a study on the statement related to Christ, I thought it would be appropriate to walk through it here since the Christian world will be celebrating Easter in a few days.  It’s a brief but great reminder of what we are celebrating and is as follows:  “We believe in Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, burial, bodily resurrection, His ascensions to the right hand of the Father and His personal future return in power and glory.”

Why Christ?

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Looking Upward

Is God Enough For You?

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And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19

I was recently included in an invitation to participate in an activity.  For various reasons I declined; any one of them had sufficient merit to opt out, but together, the choice was self-directing.  A few days after the initial invitation, a second was received.  It came on a rather busy day and not wanting to forget to respond, I sent a brief message indicating my choice.  Rather quickly, I received a reply questioning my decision which was followed by a volley of emails that indicated offense for both my choice and my means of communicating it.  The end result was yet another hurt and a broken relationship that increased my desire to withdraw from most people and especially pull away from the Christian community.

One of the difficulties for those dealing with life’s trials and/or the ongoing challenges of chronic illness is the focus.  We all face various circumstances that disappoint and frustrate us giving rise to the need of confidantes to whom we share our thoughts and occasionally vent.  However, when our thoughts become self-absorbed, we lose our perspective and cause damage in our vital relationships.

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I’m Stuck

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I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.  Psalm 40:1-3

In 1995 I had a grand mal seizure and was put on seizure medication without a thorough investigation of the circumstances.  We would learn later that I did not need it.  Problematically, if you take seizure medication and don’t need it, it can cause seizures.  Consequently, for the next nine years I endured petit mals or absence seizures.  The first one occurred after my wife and I returned home from a dance.  While we were talking with our children, Marie noticed that my expression changed to a vacant stare.  In order to avoid alarming our children she moved close to me, took my hand, lead me to our bedroom and had me sit down.  In a few moments I returned to normal function.  Through experimentation and discussion, we learned that while I could not initiate movement or speech, I could be led by others and I could nod faintly in response to yes or no questions.  However, for the most part I was immobilized and temporarily stuck in a very confining world.  As I think about those seizures, I’m reminded of times when I’ve been stuck in life.  Usually, I’m immobilized by one of three things:  fear, fatigue or indecision.  Can you relate?

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Thanksgiving Part 4

Thankful for God

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I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations.  For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds.  Be exalted above the heavens, O God; let Your glory be above all the earth.  Psalm 57:9-11

While it may seem a bit elemental, are you ever just thankful for God?  I’m certainly not often enough.  We regularly thank Him for what He provides and what He does for us, but the root of all that we are thankful for rests in God alone and who He is.  He is the starting point. He is a living being who desires a relationship with us…those that He has lovingly created for specific purposes, those whose lives He has carefully planned and those whose righteousness has been purchased with the death of His only Son.  If we took the time to consider His attributes, His care and His concern for us, wouldn’t our souls be overwhelmed with thankfulness for our Creator…Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  The reasons that we can and should be thankful for our God are innumerable and exceed the scope of our awareness in this life, yet scripture is still full of so many details that we can comprehend and appreciate.  Consequently, for this post, I have selected a sampling of passages that speak to Our Lord’s character as well as a few of the reasons that we should fall on our knees in awe and be thankful for our God and our relationship with Him. 

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Thoughts From the Beach Pt. 1

Praise the Lord Oh My Soul

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“Praise the Lord, my soul.  Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.”  Psalm 104:1

My wife and I are currently on vacation staying in a seaside condo.  We determined a few years ago that we are “beach people”.  We like to see and visit other places, but our first love is a seaside beach.  Marie grew up by the ocean in New England.  I was inland; consequently, my only encounter with the ocean was an overnight stay in Daytona while on a college choir tour.  She was excited to get me to the ocean and once there I was hooked.  At dinner last night we were talking about that fact.   As we talked while eating seaside, Marie observed that it is quite possible that I love the ocean more than she does.  I agreed stating that trips to the ocean are as much or more about my soul than rest and relaxation.

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Pregnant Words Pt. 2

The Message

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“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  And she cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?  For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.  And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.’  And Mary said:  ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.  For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.  For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name.  And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him.  He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed.  He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.’”  Luke 1:41-5

As one might guess, the title for these two posts carries a double meaning.  The words exchanged above are between pregnant women but they also carry much weight.  That weight comes in the character of the women as discussed in part one as well as the content, which is belief, God, and the acts of God.

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